our pakistan correspondent shaimaa khalil has the details. >> reporter: a family in distress. their youngest member on death row for ten years. he was 14 when he was allegedly tortured into confessing murder and sentenced by an anti-terrorism court. now he's among those to be executed after pakistan lifted its moratorium on the death sentence. he left home in search of a job more than a decade ago. his mother hasn't seen him since. >> translator: i feel like i'm going mad because of what's happened. i nearly lost my eyesight as i cry so much. my whole life has been destroyed. >> reporter: his legal team say they presented evidence to court, which showed he was under duress when he confessed and he was a minor at the time of conviction. they also say the case has nothing to do with militancy. his brother says he did not get a fair trial. >> translator: he was tortured for months. the court should consider how young he was back then. it will be a big injustice if he's hanged. >> reporter: his case is not the only one. lawyers here tell us that of the 500 people set to be execute

shaimaa khalil, bbc news, islamabad. >>> online shopping is big business around the world. and nowhere more so than in china. the country's internet giant alibaba recently reported sales of more than $9 billion in a single day. but how do all these packages get delivered? we've been finding out. >> translator: i am a courier worker in beijing. it is really hard. i work from 6:00 in the morning until late in the evening. every day the packages are september to us from our headquarters. they come from all over china. we sort them into different groups according to addresses and deliver them one by one. the amount i deliver only accounts for the tip of the iceberg. there are tens of thousands of couriers like me. they're all from relatively poor backgrounds. our company alone handles over ten million parcels a day, and that figure triples during busy periods. the boxes pile up like little mountains. even looking at them scares me. i usually deliver about 100 packages a day, but there are days when i'm given over 300 to deliver. it is almost mission impossible. the big heavy on

shaimaa khalil there. >>> now to some pretty serious stuff for what's meant to be a comedy. sony pictures have decided they're not going to release their satirical movie about a plot to kill kim jong un. it's called "the interview." a group of hackers warned people they shouldn't watch the movie and rather spooked cinemas by threatening 9/11-style attacks if the film was screened. the threat came from a group called "the guardians of peace." they hacked sony's systems last month, they leaked some movies. they also leaked embarrassing e-mails from within the company, criticizing stars including angelina jolie and george clooney. today, though, some of the stars have been speaking out. steve carell tweeted, sad day for creative expression at sony's decision not to put the film out. the writer aaron sorkin described the cancellation as a pretty horrible precedent to set. with more from hollywood, here's alistair leithead. >> reporter: there's been speculation that north korea has been behind the cyber attack on sony, since the details of the attack first emerged. it's targeted

let's get more now from the bbc's shaimaa khalil, who's en route to peshawar. we lost the line there. can you just take us back and update us on what we know about the start of this attack? what happened? >> reporter: well, we do know that at about 10:00 in the morning, local time, 5:00 gmt, gunmen managed to get into the army public school, the military facility in peshawar. it's on a main road. they were there, they were wearing military uniforms. reports say. and they were armed. there are reports that they started firing. gunfire was being heard as well as a couple of explosions and locals tell us that they also heard screams from children and teachers there. this is a big school. about 500 students go to this school. aging from grade 1 to 10, so it's a big facility, and, you know, it's still to be -- because of the situation, i'm sure there are many questions as to how these militants were able to infiltrate such a big campus. supposedly well-secured, and carry out this attack. there is a security operation going on, a rescue mission going on. some of the

our pakistan correspondent shaimaa khalil is in peshawar. she has been speaking to one student who was at the school when the attack took place. >> the people have been gathering here outside the gate of the army public school throughout the day, putting flowers, paying respects, lighting candles. many of these people are students who have come here in solidarity and support of their fellow students who have been attacked by taliban militants. i'm here with one student who saw all of this happen. his name is akef. thank you so much for speaking to me. >> i am 18 years old. this is my last year. i'm about to graduate. >> reporter: i'm looking at your uniform. there's still a bit of blood on your jacket. >> yeah, if you can please show my shoulder. >> yeah, i can see blood. >> it's bloodstained. >> reporter: what happened? >> i came downstairs. i was having my examination, so i came downstairs and saw these three gunmen walking in. one of them just shot at me with a pistol. i ducked underneath a wall and stayed there for at least five minutes.

our correspondent shaimaa khalil is in islamabad. what do we know now about the other men who could be killed by the government? >> both the government and the military leadership are under immense pressure to prove to the pakistani people that they're able to stand up to militancy. you mentioned these arrests and these six militants that were hanged in the past two days, and now we hear from the interior minister that there are hundreds more due to be hanged. he mentioned 500. the exact number we are still -- you know, it's still not decided. but also it's worthy noting that we are also hearing that not all of them are accused of terrorist acts. but it doesn't really matter as much about the numbers now. what matters is that both the government and the military want to show -- want to have a show of strength. they want to show people that they're doing something about this. that they're serious about their reaction against the militants. obviously the mood here in pakistan is still very somber. thousands of people have taken to the

now, shaimaa khalil is in peshawar. we can join her now. shaimaa, let's start where you are.r you feel any change in the mood on the streets as people come to terms with what has happened this week. >> reporter: well, stephen, i think the city is still very much in mourning and shock as well, but aside from that sense of deep sadness an grief, there is also a sense of defiance. people want to come out and resume their lives as normal. of course, in very difficult circumstances. but all throughout the past three days, including today, there have been students, students who came in in their uniforms, stood outside the gate, and said we're here to pay respects, but we're also here to send a message to the people who carried out this attack, that one day we want to go back to school. but the other sentiment from people is one of confusion, and urging the leadership, the political leadership in particular to do something about what happened. i've spoken to someone at a funeral who said look, these big politicians walk around in very tight security. what about security for us? what

i've been speaking to our correspondent shaimaa khalil in peshawar, and i asked her what more she couldstently telling us that the operation in north waziristan is still very much ongoing despite what happened here in this school. a couple of days ago, we got updates that almost 20 militants were killed in that operation, and today, we're getting as you said updates from the pakistani military saying that they have killed a number of militants in different operations, ground offensive, and also in air strikes. but only north waziristan. we're also hearing that militants have been killed in karachi. the prime minister has been getting briefed on the security situation at the moment, and of course, he came out with a unified message with the rest of the political leadership that now is the time to indiscriminately go after the taliban, and just to explain to our viewers, the significance of that is we've never actually heard a political consensus in how to deal with the taliban here in pakistan. there were always different political parties with different stances, on how to deal with the